jdbc connection

[David Mutansan]

If a jdbc connection isn't closed, how long will it stay alive ? will the system auto recycle and remove it ?

[Campbell Ritchie]

That isn't defined, I don't think. It might be closed when the JVM terminates, or it might stay open until the system is shut down altogether.

[Stephan van Hulst]

It depends purely on how the connection pool is configured. In a simple application, the configuration might be done programmatically, but in many more complex applications, the configuration is handled by the application container. It also depends on the specific JDBC driver that is being used. Some drivers might not even support any configuration of the kind at all.

Are you an application developer? If so, why do you care?

[Tim Holloway]

Actually, barring termination of the JVM, the connection will close when it times out on the database server. That is, it's not the "Connection" that times out, it's the (network) connection.

That has been a particular problem for webapp servers keeping a Connection Pool, since connections could expire while in the pool. So various mechanisms exist to check for a dead connection and, if necessary, replace it with a new one.